Hi

I bought a E350 sport in January. Noticed the bump going from 2nd to 1st almost from the beginning. After reading about the adaptive nature of the tranny, gave it the 1000 mile break-in to work itself out...but it didn't. Then, while comming down a steep and twisty wine country road, the car made a sound that felt like I had been rear ended. That was it, scared the crap out of me.

Took it to my dealer, RAB in San Rafael. They replaced the "snap-ring". One day in the shop. Felt a slight bump from 3rd to 2nd the first day back with the car. Made another appointment, but by the time that day rolled around the problem was gone. Car runs beautifully. Tranny smooth as can be through all gears.

I guess the 7G adapte to me this time...and the snap ring was the trick. It's been two weeks. Fingers crossed.

Really is a great looking and performing car. Sport package in pewter looks awsome.

Cheers.

 

24 Hours. So far, so good. Silky smooth up& down shifts when hot or cold 97% of the time. Very acceptable/Probably as good as it gets.

 

It's about bloody time, wouldn't you say Barry?

 

Gotta admit, I was really pissed at myself for having them try to eliminate the "bump from behind" problem, which opened this whole can of worms.

I was afraid I would "throw a hate" on this car & have to bail out & take another beating on a car sold too soon because I grew to hate it.

Yeah, its about time. So far, I'm back in love.

 

Found my paperwork...here's what they did when I took it in for problems with the transmission. Original problem was it wouldn't shift into gear at all after slowing at a red light. Just wouldn't go, period.

Replaced transmission valve body and oil pan:
220-270-14-06 Valve Gear
220-270-09-12 Oil Pan
251-271-00-97 Pipe
004-990-35-12 Screw
220-271-01-80 Gasket
007603-012102 Ring, General
004-990-75-12 Screw
001-989-45-03-10 Transmission

Looks awfully similar to all that they did to fix your car, Barry45RPM. And it's what started all the problems for me with the poor shift quality in the lower gears! Maybe the 2nd time will be the charm...

abhansali, you asked where I had this done. It was at MB Georgetown. I've had great luck with them in the past and now that I have all this information I'm going to go back and have them try again. I'm hopeful that like Barry I'll have my car back to running as good as new. In the beginning the 7 speed transmission was one of my favorite things about the car. It was so smooth. I could barely tell when it shifted, even under hard acceleration.

Thanks, Konig, for all the technical advice. I'm going to take that with me when I go back in so they'll have some point of reference.

I'll give an update when I get it back.

 

Same experience here, transmission replacement started a whole new set of problems. Who is the service advisor? I will wait for you to get back and then I will take it in next week, so please keep us updated.

BTW, do you guys know what all the #'s mean, here is my history, with similar names, but different part #'s:

3 visits from 8/2/04 - 8/4/05 - reported the problem of bad shifting, nothing was done on the work order.

8/4/05:
1 211-250-08-02 Converter
1 220-270-79-01 automatic tr
4 012-997-59-45 covering
10 001-989-45-03-10 transmission

8/30/05:
1 220-277-00-47 UBE
1 220-271-01-80 Gasket
6 004-990-35-12 screw
10 004-990-75-12 screw
10 001-989-45-03-10 transmission

9/15/05
10 001-989-45-03-13 transmission
1 220-271-01-80 gasket
1 220-270-14-06-28 valve gear
1 220-277-00-47 ube
10 004-990-75-12 screw
6 004-990-35-12 screw

1/23/06
Customer states transmission is not shifting correctly mostly 2-1 shift and 3-2 see history 27-1010-t2 27-7030-t2 replaced transmission pan gasket

1 220-271-01-80 gasket
4 001-989-21-03-10 trans fluid

And I think there was one more repair before 1/23/06, but I can't find that paperwork. It was that job that was not done right so a huge amount of fluid leaked out in my garage and they re-did this gasket.

I really have not paid a lot of attention to these invoices, but does this mean I have had 3 transmission put in the car? And why the different numbers from mallard?

 

The new pan & tube was done on my transmission the previous visit, so I guess we have the same repair, only mine took 2 visits. The shifting in mine is still good, and I find myself less and less "tuned in" to the transmission watching/listening to every single shift, looking for a problem.

I am beginning to enjoy my car again, and am not panicked about "having to learn to live with it" or bailing out of an "expensive mistake".

I guess I have to chalk this one up to my being persistant in reporting the problem repeatedly, some of the dealership's SA's believing me, and being car guys themselves, and MB realizing that they did indeed have a problem with some 7 speeds, and coming up with (finally) with the right fix.

There IS a problem with some SA's taking my detailed report of my transmission's performance under load, when cold, when hot, RPM's, MPH and any other info I could give them, and him typing into the computer "Customer States transmission shifting improperly."... then asking if I was due for an oil change. That was a real letdown. I would love to talk to dealership management about that. I mean the owner of the place has a fortune invested in the place, and to have a couple of "empty suits" in the service department who aren't the least bit knowlegeable about cars or car guys cost him a customer is the most stupid thing in the world... and Management isn't even aware of the situation... and there is a constant change in SA's there so you can't even build a relationship with the service department. But the shop formen and mechanics do the right thing.

I'm Happy with the car.

 

my 2006 E500 shifts well. mb probably had software pretty well perfected by 2006 model year. dealer should be able to reprogram yours.

 

Although my car is 2006 W220, I had the hiccup from 2-1 gear when I picked it up but have noticed that it has gone away now I have driven the car about 800 miles. Per the VIN the car was built in July 2005. I bought it at end of 2005.

I understand the fix, should it have continued, is to reprogram and/or replace the valve body.

 

We rented an ML350 (new version) for our vacation in late January/early Feb/06.

The powertrain (7-speed, 3.5L V6) was disappointing. The engine was very short on low speed torque, and the transmission was reluctant to downshift. This left you in a higher gear with no power and no alternative but to wait until the tranny decided to do a downshift. IMHO, a very poor program, and not at all commensurate with the cost of the $45,000+ car.

We own an '05 E320 CDI. I've somewhat been waiting for the new CDI, mainly for it's 7-speed tranny (torque curve is very narrow on our CDI). Our experience with the ML does not bode well for the performance of the new V-6 7-speed CDI !!!

 

I don't have any such problem that I read on this tread. Seems the E class 7g is more problematic (so to say). I drive a 2005 slk350. If you guys want to down shift, don't you just touch the stick until the desire gear?

 

I'm looking at my 2008 E-Class catalog. It shows all models of the E-Class having this 7 speed transmission except for the 5Matic and E350 Wagon. Is this the same transmission everyone is complaining about?

 

Bear in mind I started this thread 3/26/06. It is an old thread. At that time I was looking to see if anybody was having the crappy 1-2 & 2-1 shifting I was experiencing on my 11/2003 built 2004 model. The 7 Speed has been improved upon in both hardware and software since then.

I have to say it is better on my '07 than it was at any time on my 2004.

 

I love the 7-speed on my 07 E320 Bluetec and since i spend most of my time in 7th at 120+mph (just kidding). Nothing to complain about.

 

I find this to be the best automatic tranny i've ever driven. It is very smooth and seems to predict what is about to happen very well. If you are on an incline it keeps the gear longer for more torque, if you nail the gas and go for a gear or two it keeps the revs high expecting you to need them. Even if you go fast around a corner the tranny holds a low gear anticipating a hard on the throttle exit.

 

You know whats odd about the 7G though? It's when you go travel down a steep decline for a good amount of distance, say 1/8 of a mile or so. It won't upshift into high gear and coast. It stays in optimal gear for whatever speed you're going.

The only reason I know this, is because I have to travel down a pretty steeply graded decline for a good 1/2 mile to get to my house. Both of my cars equipped with the 7G and any loaner I've ever gotten all do it. Every other car I've even been in on this road, upshifts into high gear and coasts.

Odd.

 

But the 5-speed electronically controlled MB tranny does this too. To me it is an improvement from the old design auto tranny, allowed by the introduction of computer control. Now you can enjoy engine braking equally as with a manual gearbox. Perhaps this is odd for US owners who are more used to old design auto boxes while European drivers are more used to manual and want the auto tranny behave mostly similarly.

On cruise the car downshifts clearly for engine braking but I don't even remember if you can tap a higher gear on a downhill and if it would then stay there, if you wanted it to roll "free".

 

My car does that too, I find it to be very useful on the north shore of LI, particularly in Huntington. It keeps you from having to ride the brake when going downhill, like I said it really is a great tranny except for one thing I forgot to mention- the really long delay when you nail the gas before the car downshifts.

 

Sprintbooster or an ECU tune will take care of that.

 

Mine’s perfect. I’ve often wondered why Lexus thinks
an 8 speed is such a big deal. Who needs it?

My last DTS was a 4 speed, and it shifted smooth as
silk.

jimm

==========

‘08 E350 Sport, P2, Black/black, Parktronic,
Voice, Bluetooth, Burl Walnut, Split rear seat,
Wood/leather steering wheel

 

I'm happy with mine...

 

+ 1

 

what year is this car?

 

04 e500

 

It is kind of ironic that this thread returned to life....my current adventure follows:

I took my E550 in for a tranny check last Wednesday. In "S" mode it had gradually started shifting more and more harshly into 2nd gear either up or partial kickdown, to the point I had pretty much stopped driving the car about 2 weeks ago waiting for the 1st day a service loaner was available. All other gears and transmission operation were absolutely fine.

The MB techs diagnosed it as a "Broken Snap Ring", proceeded to disassemble the transmission, only to discover that the "Snap Ring" was fine....misdiagnosis?....I'm still not sure.

They then called "technical assistance" who after a day of "assisting" determined that they are going to replace the transmission with a new unit from Germany. The problem is that the new unit is "on backorder", and no one can tell me how long it will be until I get my car back....I was informally advised by my SA, nice guy, that it could be "in the range of three or more weeks."

I met with the Service Manager yesterday, insisted that my car remain inside on the lift (they were planning to push it outside), and asked them to provide me a status daily on the part delivery. I told him I am o.k. with a week to complete the repair, but will not hesitate to escalate to MBUSA and the dealer GM if it goes beyond that. The guy was seriously evasive when I asked for any type of schedule committment.

In the interim, I am banished to driving a C240 loaner for my Benz duties, and seriously question if what may have been something minor has mushroomed into a headache for me and expense for MB.

This car has been great to date, but if MBUSA puts me out of service for an extended period due to not stocking parts, it will be my last; heck Chrysler service and parts availability for my lowly JEEP has been much pretty much flawless....I think MB trained them well over the past six years.

Next week should prove to be interesting....wish me luck.